Canada · Ontario Curriculum Expectations
Grade 2 The Arts
A comprehensive exploration of visual arts, music, drama, and dance designed for second grade learners. Students develop foundational technical skills while investigating how the arts communicate emotions and stories across different cultures and time periods.
Visual Worlds and Artistic Elements
Students explore the building blocks of visual art including line, shape, and color theory through hands on creation.
Investigating how warm and cool colors influence the emotional impact of a painting.
Creating sculptures that explore tactile surfaces and how objects occupy physical space.
Examining historical and contemporary portraits to understand how artists represent identity.
Rhythm, Melody, and Soundscapes
An introduction to music theory and performance where students find their voices and explore percussive patterns.
Distinguishing between a steady beat and complex rhythmic patterns using body percussion.
Using the voice and simple instruments to explore high and low sounds and melodic contour.
Identifying different instrument families and their cultural origins through active listening.
Characters and Creative Movement
Students use their bodies and voices to inhabit characters and express narratives through drama and dance.
Using facial expressions, posture, and vocal variety to create believable characters on stage.
Learning how to tell a story through a sequence of planned movements and choreography.
Exploring how costumes, props, and lighting contribute to the world of a play.
Art History and Community Connections
Connecting artistic practices to local communities and global history to understand the role of the artist in society.
Investigating how art in public spaces reflects the values and stories of a neighborhood.
Learning about the significance of traditional symbols and methods in local Indigenous art forms.
Developing a vocabulary to describe, analyze, and interpret various works of art.